Art · Moscow · Observations · Reportage · Humour

The Oberton graphic art fair takes place in a former turntable depot behind Leningradsky Station

Buy! Buy! Buy! I have come to a new contemporary art fair, yes, yet another in this year of squandered budgets. It is called Obertone, and it is devoted exclusively to graphic art. It is held in an industrial zone behind Leningradsky Station. The taxi driver was most curious as

NB! · Cinema · Observations

Hard to say whether 2025 did Brienne of Tarth any good or not?

Archive · Books · Moscow · Observations · Education

Does the Young Maiden Tremble, or the Young Wench Shake?

Mikhail Alexandrovich Dmitriev, an old Russian writer of the Slavophile circle, now almost forgotten, recalls the Church Slavonic classes of his university years in this way. Professor of Slavonic philology Matvey Gavrilov proposed that, wherever possible, Russian words in speech be exchanged for Slavonic ones, and the result was handsome:

Faith · Observations · Society

Watching the recent meeting of Pope Leo and Patriarch Bartholomew, I can say that I would, of course, support the union of all Christian confessions, provided that Rome returned to its pre-schism teachings and role, and turned once more to the faith…

Such a union is possible only if all branches of the church are brought into conformity with Orthodoxy, which alone, by the criteria of historical and liturgical continuity, corresponds to the image of the Christian Church under the Apostles. This is confirmed by its unbroken succession, by its very structure,

Architecture · Observations · Society · Paris

Outgoing mayor's narcissism and elite greed as causes of a distorted capital cityscape

The Triangular Tower in Paris: Expectation and Reality. Though both are equally ill-suited to the balance of the capital's panorama and to the elegance of the silhouette of the most beautiful city in the world. Most curious of all, the chief reasons for the existence of this

NB! · Observations · Mores

What Is Really Meant When They Say "They Were Made for Each Other"

Observations · Society · Paris

Georges Pompidou in the 1970s on the excess of laws and rules in France

Leave us in peace! Stop pestering us! There are too many laws in this country, too many regulations, too many rules! It is killing us! Let us live a little, and you will see, everything will sort itself out! Georges Pompidou in the 1970s [about FRANCE, naturally]. But a little

Art · Observations · People · Humour

“My Eyes at the Moment of Apparitions”, a painting by the German outsider artist August Natterer, 1913

A meme a hundred years old, then

Two elderly men in suits talk, and the man on the right points a finger at the other man's chest.

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Witch Ursula's remark on body language beside a photo of two men talking

I am not hinting at anything, but this is Prince Charles, heir to the British crown, and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of the Rothschilds' international investment bank. As Ursula the sea witch used to say, body language, ha!

Black-and-white photo through a doorway: in a kitchen a man in a white shirt stirs a pan while a young man in the foreground looks back.

Archive · Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture

Good morning and breakfast wishes with a photograph of men in a kitchen

Paul Newman, Anthony Perkins and Joanne Woodward in the Kitchen, 1958. Good morning, and a hearty breakfast to all!

Art · Observations · Society Pages

Leonid Sokov’s “Levitan” at the Catalog art fair and a reflection on buying art

Photographed beside Leonid Sokov's "Levitan" at the Catalog contemporary art fair on preview day. To be honest, on leaving the house I recalled a selection of looks from a men's fashion public page and hastily assembled an outfit to suit the mood of the

The East · Monarchies · Observations · Society

In 1793 the first British diplomatic mission arrived in China, with the aim of opening new ports to British trade, establishing a permanent embassy in Peking, obtaining a small island for British use and…

Among other things, the British envoy was to persuade China to buy British goods. The Emperor Qianlong's reply was original: “We possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures.” On the remaining points, too,